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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
What is Service?
“Service: An act of
assistance or benefit; a favor”
-Answers.com
“Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
What Service Means
To me,
service means helping others for no personal gain except for the knowledge
that you did something good in the world and helped benefit others. I think
we can all learn from acts of kindness towards others, whether random or
deliberate. We can find new ways to help people, new ways to make acts of
kindness and service more enjoyable and easier to carry out.
Service is
not always just an act of kindness, though. Service can be the fight you put
up for another person’s rights or your own. Standing up for justice and
freedom is a service to all who will come in the next generations. If
everyone served one another, the world would most definitely be a kinder,
safer, more just, and more pleasant place to inhabit.
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How Dr. King Served
·
By leading and
supporting the Alabama
bus boycott of 1955
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By speaking out
against segregation and discrimination for those who would not speak for
themselves
·
By paving the
way new generations of civil rights activists
·
By setting an
example for all those who wanted to fight for their rights and for peace
·
By fighting
nonviolently and many time stopping violent acts before they could start
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How
You Can Serve
·
By helping the
people in your community that cannot help themselves
·
By volunteering
in shelters, fundraisers, and
community service programs
·
By cleaning a
park or school grounds
·
By delivering
meals to people who cannot go out or cook their own food
These
are only a few of many ways you can serve your community
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Why Serve?
There
are many reasons for you to serve. Service is a necessity in society and
everyone can benefit from a good deed. By serving you are helping not only
others, but helping yourself. You’d be surprised how much you can gain by
serving others.
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Resources
Martin Luther King – Biography. 14
April 2005. The Nobel Foundation. 15 December 2005
<http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html>
The Nobel
Foundation’s Page on Martin Luther King Jr.
AAA Buttons. Magnetic Fields. 2005. 7 December 2005. <http://www.aaa-buttons.com/>
http://www.aaa-buttons.com/
The American
Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004. Answers.com. 7 December 2005.
<http://www.answers.com/topic/service>
http://www.answers.com/topic/service
Background Textures
III. 7 December 2005 <http://www.fg-a.com/>
http://www.fg-a.com/backgrounds.htm
Images of American Political History. Ball, Dr. William J. National Archives and Records
Administration 14 December 2005
<http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail444.html>
http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/index.htm
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About Martin Luther King
·
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15,
1929 and was named Michael Luther King, Jr.
·
His father was a pastor and he later became
one also after helping his father in his work.
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He received his education in Georgia and
had graduated high school early. He then attended college and received a
degree.
·
In 1954, he was appointed pastor of a church
in Alabama.
·
In 1955, he took his position as leader of the
Civil Rights movement in the South.
·
He then became famous around the world for his
speeches, books, and actions in the U.S.
·
When he was just 35 years old, he was honored
with the Nobel Peace Prize.
·
On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated on the
balcony of his motel room.
·
Almost 40 years after his death, his legacy
lives on in all those who serve one another and use what they have to make
the world, their nation, or their community a better and more wholesome
place.
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